oceans and quarries
by shady stays gold
Summary: He wouldn't have gotten stung at all if it weren't for the fact that he came to help her.


**No real-life people in stories allowed in FFN, so the D4 girl represents someone and Cato represents someone else. Ship-fic, for Slim (Catching Fireflies). **

* * *

_he wouldn't have gotten stung at all if it weren't for the fact that he came to help me_

* * *

The girl stretched her tired arms over her head, feeling her strained muscles twist in pain. Katrina let out her deep breath in a yawn. When she looked up at the sky, it was still pitch black, sprinkled with shining specks of starlight. Glimmer leaned against a tree, brushing out her hair with her newest sponsor gift- a comb. Katrina rolled her eyes, rolled over, and tried to fall asleep again.

It felt like she'd been sleeping for mere minutes, but she hadn't been. It had been hours. Katrina sat up immediately, rubbing her eyes. It must be an hour or so before dawn. Normally in District Four, she'd wake up at 3:00 to get the best fish. She hated sleeping late, it felt like she was wasting her day. Especially here, in the Hunger Games. You never know just how many days you have left.

As she picked up her spear from the leaves, she accidentally bumped into Cato. Her pale face turned bright red as Cato rolled over, woken up by the sudden shove. "Sorry, sorry," Katrina stammered quietly. She hoped Cato wouldn't get angry. From training, she knew what happened when Cato gets angry, and it wasn't a pretty thing.

"Nah, it's okay," Cato whispered, as not to wake up the rest of the Careers. "I was about awake anyway." Katrina looked at the muscular boy and couldn't believe he was a year younger than her. She looked at him shyly, though. She wanted his approval, she wanted to be recognized in the Career pack, she wanted to be noticed. ...and it didn't help that she was getting a crush on him.

"All right, then" was all she could manage. She silently cursed herself for not being more outgoing. Thankfully, Cato didn't notice.

"How about we go for an early-morning run? Scare some tributes? Get some exercise, since that damn Capitol food makes everyone gain some pounds?" Cato asked Katrina. "You like to run, right?" Katrina's eyes widened. She couldn't believe that he noticed that about her. When they ran for the Cornucopia, she was one of the first people there.

"Yeah, I love running," she said. "Let's go." They carefully stepped away from the rest of the Careers, and looked back at the camp. That Everdeen girl was still sleeping, lying on a branch. Glimmer was sleeping too, instead of keeping guard. "Should we wake her up?" Katrina asked Cato, pointing at Glimmer. Cato shook his head.

"If Fire Girl tries to make a run for it, someone'll hear, and she'll be dead before her feet hit the ground," he says. He winks at Katrina, and then says toward the general direction of Katniss's tree: "Try fake-sleeping a little better, Fire Girl." Katrina laughs with him, and they take off running.

When they get back to the camp they find chaos.

Glimmer is shrieking and running around, a swirl of golden tracker jackers swarming around her, stinging her. Glimmer's blonde hair got in her eyes and must make it hard for it to see. She collapses on the ground and screams shrilly at the top of her lungs. Marvel is running in the direction of the lake. Clove is going with him. Katrina stumbles backward numbly, not wanting to get near her allies for fear the tracker jackers will find her too. But then she sees Katniss, jumping down from the tree.

Her. She did this. Cut down the tracker jacker nest from her tree.

Rage filled Katrina, and without thinking, she ran right through the cloud of tracker jackers to Katniss. Katniss's eyes widened and she staggered back into the tree at the sight of the angry Career.

Then the stings started.

Tracker jackers stung every part of Katrina, and she screamed for no one in particular. White-hot pain filled her brain until she tripped over her own feet and fell in the mud. Katniss was already running away. Just then, Katrina figured out who to scream for.

"CATO! CATO!" she yelled. She heard footsteps shaking the ground, and suddenly Cato was in front of her, ripping off his shirt, swatting at the tracker jackers. When most of them were off Katrina, Cato dragged her to her feet and they started to run toward the lake.

Cato kept flinching. He was getting stung too. Katrina had been stung so many times she could barely feel it anymore. She couldn't help but think, _He wouldn't have gotten stung at all if it weren't for the fact that he came to help me. _

Suddenly, her knees bucked, and she felt herself hit the ground hard. Cato stopped running. "KATRINA! GET UP, GET TO THE LAKE!" he bellowed in her ears. But she couldn't. Her legs transformed into tridents that she knew would break if she got up. Her hands started to crumble like sand.

"I can't!" Katrina wailed. At least the tracker jackers were targeting Katniss now. She didn't see any more of them.

All she saw was Cato shaking her, his eyes full of pain. And that was the last thing she ever saw.

* * *

**I know it was pretty choppy and the characters aren't very round, but it's a short oneshot, so bear with me here. Thanks for reading!**


End file.
